The BJP’s PM candidate Tuesday played the caste card to counter Priyanka’s attack and questioned whether belonging to a low caste was a crime.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday hit out at Narendra Modi for dubbing his sister Priyanka’s “neech rajniti” remark as an attack on his caste, saying people’s actions are low, not their caste.

“Jaati kabhi neechi nahi hoti. Soch neechi hoti hai, karm hote hain (caste can never be low, it is thinking and work of an individual that can be low),” he said when asked about the controversy. “Neech soch hoti hai, gusse ki soch hoti hai, krodh ki soch hoti hai (it is ideology which can be low, the ideology of anger).”

The BJP’s PM candidate Tuesday played the caste card to counter Priyanka’s attack and questioned whether belonging to a low caste was a crime. “Is it a crime to be born in a backward caste? Did I insult anyone despite being born in a backward caste? Such a dirty blame has been put on me,” Modi had said.

This he said a day after Priyanka hit out at Modi, saying he has insulted her “martyred” father Rajiv Gandhi during his speech in Amethi and accused him of indulging in “low-level” politics.